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The revival of the nation has shocked German intellectuals who think that the nation-state is historically obsolete & that new models should be upheld: the united Europe, a world community of responsible states, globalization of markets, a universe of human rights. The contrary tendencies in today's world are marked by giving up on huge political entities, which have been replaced by smaller nationality-based states. It seems that political freedom leads to the formation of nation-states based on democratic constitution. This process requires looking into the relation between the nation-state & democracy. The key for the explanation of their relationship can be found in the notion of nation. Citizenship mediates between the people (in its real manifestation as a social group), & democracy as a constitutional principle. It gives to the state as a personal entity legal structure on which to build a democratic form of the state & guarantees legally applicable taxonomies & limitations. Adapted from the source document.

This article critically examines the answers to the following questions: "Why are there nation-states?," ie., "Why isn't there only one nation-state?," asked by Jacques Bidet in his work General Theory of Modernity. In the first part of the article, Bidet's analogy between the emergence of nation-states & more complex states such as the EU is discussed, with particular emphasis on the possibilities of creating a worldwide democratic state, which Bidet innovatively conceives as a guarantee of equality between nations. Still, in view of the normative character of Bidet's theory, the author raises doubts about the possibility of clarifying Bidet's assertion that "the time has not yet come for a universal state-order." In the second part of the article, the author attempts to find an answer to Bidet's questions with the help of Marx's class analysis. On the one hand, such an analysis makes it possible to explain why (worldwide) capitalism benefits from "freezing" the extant order of nation-states. On the other hand, not even Marx's analysis makes it possible to elucidate the conditions for building a worldwide state, particularly the one condition which Bidet cares about most of all: a relation between nations characterized by equality & lack of rivalry. Adapted from the source document.

Contrary to the prevalent criticism of the modern nation-state, the author thinks that it is an institution ethically valid in itself. A nation-state is a political entity in which the boundaries of state & nation coincide. National identity is a source of communitarian solidarity & trust, essential for the formation of a state. The author thinks that the state, as a means of national self-determination can relinquish many of its functions & delegate them to supranational bodies, under the condition that it can regain them. Certain areas, such as social & cultural policy & certain aspects of economic policy, due to their importance for the preservation of the national identity should remain in the hands of the nation-state. In their foreign policy, states ought to respect several basic norms: renouncing the use of force or other forms of pressure, honoring agreements, solidarity in adversity, & reducing the unfair distribution of resources. The author deals with the problem of multinational states & concludes that the separate national groups in principle have a right to secession & the creation of their own state. Adapted from the source document.

Looking at the European Constitution & the legal attainments of the European Union from the perspective of the modern nation-state leads to aporia & Euroskepticism since the European Union has never been, nor will it ever be, a political community modelled after the nation-state. The nation-state as a constitutional institution is not tantamount to political processes; it is one of the historical options of the political. The state & politics cannot be equated: the nation-state is a political institution while politics is a process with various alternatives of institutionalization. These two sides, the constitutional state & the political processes, are in the relationship of soft incommensurability & it is not quite possible to equate them in some higher association. Equating the constitutional state & the political activity in present-day debates on the European Constitution results in Euroskepticism. Conservative theoreticians of the state & politics cannot study the constitutional state separately from political processes. For them Europe is possible solely as a constitutional state with democratic legitimation; otherwise it will never come into being. These theoreticians view the relationship between the constitution & politics as the means-ends or cause-effect category, & not as an open-ended process between two one unequatable media that are semantically mutually irritating. The goal of the European politics is not a European state, nor is the goal of the European constitution to curb the spontaneity of European political processes. The European Union is an open-ended semantic relationship between its legal attainments & its political processes. Consequently, the concept of democracy as a political form will have to be redefined. The European Union as a political community sui generis should be explained from the perspective of contemporary theories evolved along the lines of the linguistic & deconstructivist reversal of the modern substantionalist rationalism, universalism & cosmopolitism. The major contribution of these post-modern theories is that they do not consider political reality as an objective given, but as a construct for which we know how it was produced so that we can change it. This means that the object of study is not the constitutional-legal reality but the knowledge of the constitutional-legal reality that is continuously expanded by means of the new designations of the semantically nonexistent political environment. The European Constitution & the European politics are in the relationship of mutual semantic irritation, but are not identical & will never become identical. References. Adapted from the source document.

Polemically oriented toward Helmuth Plessner's Belated Nation & the introductory presentations in the debate about this book at the Faculty of Political Science, the author is of the opinion that the German case is a belated attempt at empire creation, & that all the nations in the world are "late" -- except for the Dutch. By referring to the literature on politico-economic history & the model & comparative analysis of the nation-state as a complex politico-economic community within the world system of the West, the author thinks that Schieder's typology of the creation of European nations is not plausible -- either theoretically or factually/historically. 20 References. Adapted from the source document.

The article opens with an introduction to the key aspects of the globalization debates and their controversies, while it later deals with the crisis of the national model of citizenship. Since the 1990's the debate is between the advocates of two conflicting theses. According to the first camp of authors, citizenship has proven resistant to the globalization changes in the economic, political and cultural sphere, and even capable of revival. On the other side, it has been argued that the identity of a person, as a member of a national community, was gradually separated from its human and civil rights. That led to the establishment of a 'postnational model of membership' -- individual and group rights independent of citizenship. According to the second camp, the nation state was fundamentally transformed and it has become an instrument for implementation of the international conventions and norms of human rights understood as personal instead of citizenship rights. There are also attempts to reconcile the two standpoints. These authors recognize the challenges to the conventional national mode of citizenship, but argue that the processes of citizenship transformation are primarily an internal issue for the liberal democracies. Some authors try to step out of the narrow and exclusive conceptual frameworks of the nation state and postnational membership, attempting to explain the conflicting transformation processes of citizenship rights. There are also proposals for new concepts of citizenship -- a multicultural and a supranational, for example -- as a response to the challenges of globalization and international migration. Finally, postmodern writers talk about postmodern or a cosmopolitan citizenship that is not immediately tied to the nation-state. Adapted from the source document.

The article opens with an introduction to the key aspects of the globalization debates and their controversies, while it later deals with the crisis of the national model of citizenship. Since the 1990's the debate is between the advocates of two conflicting theses. According to the first camp of authors, citizenship has proven resistant to the globalization changes in the economic, political and cultural sphere, and even capable of revival. On the other side, it has been argued that the identity of a person, as a member of a national community, was gradually separated from its human and civil rights. That led to the establishment of a 'postnational model of membership' -- individual and group rights independent of citizenship. According to the second camp, the nation state was fundamentally transformed and it has become an instrument for implementation of the international conventions and norms of human rights understood as personal instead of citizenship rights. There are also attempts to reconcile the two standpoints. These authors recognize the challenges to the conventional national mode of citizenship, but argue that the processes of citizenship transformation are primarily an internal issue for the liberal democracies. Some authors try to step out of the narrow and exclusive conceptual frameworks of the nation state and postnational membership, attempting to explain the conflicting transformation processes of citizenship rights. There are also proposals for new concepts of citizenship -- a multicultural and a supranational, for example -- as a response to the challenges of globalization and international migration. Finally, postmodern writers talk about postmodern or a cosmopolitan citizenship that is not immediately tied to the nation-state. Adapted from the source document.

The author criticizes those Euro-sceptics who still treat the European Union as an open project that requires major decisions on the road to its fruition, as if the Union had not relinquished the model of the classical nation-state a long time ago. The author also promotes a reinterpretation of those aspects of European history that have given rise or might give rise to anti-European sentiments. Adapted from the source document.

In light of the dramatic events in Serbian political society, the author looks into the most fundamental question of the political theory of constitutionalism: the way in which a revolution can reach its apogee in a viable form of constitutional government. The liberal revolution in Serbia enabled the collective identity to be redefined on the basis of constitutional patriotism. The author thinks that constitutional patriotism may be a good basis for a reconstruction of the political regime beyond the nation-state. 17 References. Adapted from the source document.

Although it cannot be denied that nation-states & their sovereignties still exist as a significant form of identity of the civilian society within the world order, under the influence of new globalization processes -- political, ecological, cultural -- in the last decades of the 20th century, & the urgency of the need to solve new global problems (ecological, genetic, communication, market, multicultural), the issue of new identities has emerged. The world of "complex interdependences" has dramatic implications for sovereignty, autonomy, & responsibility of states & their ability to independently solve the key political problems they are faced with. The new issues brought about by the globalization processes can no longer be based solely on the principles of the white-Western-Christian-male-industrial civilization that has proved lethal in many social, cultural, & political aspects of life, particularly regarding the environment. That is why the initiatives for the recognition of new multicultural identities can be realized only within the global order in which Westerners no longer have a privileged position. Radicalizing these issues, environmentalists conclude that the global ecological policy can no longer be based on the old political boundaries of nation-states, that new political boundaries are needed, based on ecological principles. These boundaries should coincide with the boundaries of ecological systems if development is to be sustained. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to globally expand democracy in order to create new institutions that are going to institutionalize some new forms of political culture, based on the principles of the "green politics," which presupposes respect for all forms of life & avoids a hierarchy of life forms with humankind on the top. 25 References. Adapted from the source document.

The author looks into the problem of the sovereignty of the nation-state in the era of globalization. States have lost a number of their attributes & are no longer particularly efficient. Although states are still the primary actors in international relations, they have lost some of their sovereignty, functions & powers. International institutions now usurp the right to appraise & restrict what states do on their own territory. Despite this, in the near future the state is to remain the dominant political form in international relations. It still maintains an army, conducts diplomacy, negotiates agreements, wages wars, supervises international organizations & influences production & trade. The author points out that states are capable of adjusting to the imperatives of international political economy & claims that the state in the 2lst century will probably perform indispensable political social-economic functions since no other organization has emerged as its genuine rival able to replace it. 1 Table, 18 References. Adapted from the source document.